25% of DG’s factory girls have multiple boyfriends

A 2013 photo shoot from the making of Made in China: Factory Girls. The documentary film from British based artist Aowen Jin depicts the “dreams and aspirations” of China’s factory girls. (Credit: Jin Aowen)

About 25 percent of the female workers from Dongguan’s factories said they feel having multiple sexual partners is appropriate. This is according to research provided by the Tangxia Hospital.

Staff at the hospital surveyed 810 young women during visits from February to September of 2013. Participants came from a sample of women, aged 18 to 50, working in factories in Tangxia, Zhangmutou, Qingxi and Xiegang towns. Their average salary is around RMB 2,000 and of the sample, 246 are unmarried.

The report also shows that 32 percent felt that having sex once would not lead to pregnancy. And 64.2 percent of them were not adverse to the idea of premarital pregnancy.

The report also shows that 32 percent felt that having sex once would not lead to pregnancy.

Mr. Liu, a Dongguan resident, thinks that the research could be very representative of the greater population. “I think young factory girls have an open attitude about sex,” he said, “And high rates of married workers who live separated from their husbands could approve of sex outside marriage.”

However, some don’t buy the results of the research. Another Dongguan resident, Ms. Ye, doesn’t believe the results are representative. “I think many female workers tend to have a fixed partner,” she said.

The three researchers in Tangxia Hospital said that most of the young factory girls are migrant workers who have had little education in the matter, leading to a high rate of premarital sex.

There are similar reports from earlier research. It is quite common that many male factory workers have several sex partners, according to Zheng Lixin, an official in the science and technology institute of family planning of Guangdong Province.

A study from 2009 shows that 30 percent of migrant workers have experienced sexual intercourse outside of marriage and 30 percent of the married men have several sexual partners.